The NBA is a league where the best athletes in the world get a chance to display their talents. Over the years, we have seen incredible basketball players put up superhuman performances while trying to carry their team to a win and potentially an NBA title.
Although the NBA isn’t considered dirty when compared to other sports leagues across the world, fans will recall that drug tests and accusations of taking PEDs have grown rampant over the years. To those who do not know, PEDs are performance-enhancing drugs that would allow players to dominate furthermore on the court.
In fact, even the face of the NBA, LeBron James, has been accused of taking PEDs in the past. That begs the question of how many players have been suspended for taking these drugs and whether LeBron is one of them.
Several NBA players have been suspended over the years for taking PEDs
It turns out that there is quite a long list of players who have been accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs over the years. However, not all these accusations were proven and only a few were suspended for their actions. LeBron has been accused multiple times in the past. However, he has never failed a drug test and has never been suspended by the league as a result. That said, here are all the other players who have been accused of taking PEDs and suspended.
Deandre Ayton
We can start this list with an important member of the Phoneix Suns. As NBA fans will be aware Deandre Ayton played a huge role in his team’s trip to the NBA Finals back in 2021. However, just a couple of years before that, he was accused of taking PEDS.
Ayton tested positive for Diuretic. To those who do not know, this is a kind of drug that increases the production of Urine. Although it isn’t really incriminating in itself, Ayton was still suspended for 25 games. This makes sense considering it is used to invalidate other drug tests by increasing the urine retention level and messing up the results.
John Collins
Another player who is still in the league after being accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs is John Collins. He has been an integral part of the Atlanta Hawks over the years. However, this one act of impulse led to him being suspended for 25 games.
According to the reports, John Collins tested positive for using a drug called pralmorelin. This is a type of growth hormone and is completely banned by the league. Since he did not pay heed to the league rules and consumed the plasma growth hormone, he was suspended back in 2019, just a little over a week after Ayton was suspended.
Malik Monk
NBA fans will undoubtedly know about Malik Monk. After all, he was teammates with LeBron James in the Los Angeles Lakers last season. This year, he is currently with the Sacramento Kings, who are doing exceptionally well. All of that is very impressive. However, Monk got into quite a lot of trouble.
He tested positive for PEDs during the 2019-2020 NBA season. At the time he was with the Charlotte Hornets and was supposed to be suspended for the entire season. However, the COVID pandemic led to the entire league suspending play for a few months. When the season finally continued in the bubble, Monk did not suit up with the Hornets.
Larry Sanders, Dion Waiters, and JR Smith
Although all the athletes mentioned so far were suspended for taking PEDs, the same cannot be said for Larry Sanders, Dion Waiters, and JR Smith. They were never accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs. Nonetheless, they have all been suspended for violating the NBA’s drug policy.
That is because all 3 athletes were caught with Marijuana, a substance that is banned by the NBA even though it isn’t really proven to be performance-enhancing. In any case, one could argue that all 3 players’ careers went down the drain after they were suspended.
We hope that the remaining athletes in the NBA do not repeat the same mistakes that their predecessors committed. After all, that is the only way to ensure that they have a successful and clean career in the league.
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